Unfair use of Moderation tools

Question

The question in question has been reopened and closed but is still need to be open so more answers can be given. I will gladly read even if it is hypothetical and upvote.

I have a question about my Electrical Engineering Stack Exchange post: Can solar cells be wired to produce 120 volts AC?

This doesn't answer my question really. I was hoping that someone whom has experience in solar design could get a chance to answer before it was closed by the same person who answered it in such a short time? Thous gaining reputation with out any other valid answers could be given seams like cheating and left me without the input from other experts who did not even have a chance to look at it?

Answer 1

It does indeed seem unfair.

Dave thought it was on-topic enough to answer, for him, but closed it for everyone else to answer. This sends conflicting messages.

Fortunately a question can be reopened by the same community that votes to close it. It seems that is what will happen to your question. Of course, this assumes that everything else is good with your question. It already had a close vote from a non-moderator before it was closed.

I think one of the problems here is that a moderator is not allowed to vote for closing. They can only close. I understand that a lot of moderators would really like to be able to cast a vote instead of using the close-hammer.

Answer 2

To clarify: the mistake made here by the moderator was to answer the question.

It was correctly closed. Then it was incorrectly re-opened, likely because of this meta post. And now it is correctly closed again.

The question has a vague specification of a whole project - it is far too broad. As such, it could only be answered in general, vague ways. The Stack Exchange concept is to have questions with limited scope that can be answered without writing a whole essay. Broad questions also open up for discussion or debate. Summary here.

Please note that a question is closed - not deleted. The purpose of this is to give the original poster a chance to fix it. As soon as the original poster edit a closed question, it pops up in a "re-open review queue" where other users with user moderator previligies will review it and vote to re-open if appropriate.

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Now as for how to fix the question: narrow the scope and state which is the specific problem you are trying to solve. There has to be a specific problem to solve - questions that ask for some vague, theoretical discussion cannot be salvaged.

Make a simple example circuit and ask how it could be completed to give the desired result. Or do some research about solar cells and clarify the specification: which components will be used, what is the result you are hoping for etc.

Also try to ask one question per question. If you come up with a new question which is related to the problem, then post a new question. Link to the old one if needed.

Answer 3

Your revised version of the question no longer has anything to do with the moderators. Note that this time the question was closed by 5 ordinary users.

One reason it got closed may be that you state a very unusual and seemingly silly requirement, but refuse to justify it. That makes it sound like it is indeed silly, religious, and arbitrary. People won't take you seriously that way, and they don't want to waste time answering what may well turn out to be a X-Y problem.